Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-30T19:58:08.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - An Analysis of the Language Legislation Effects in the Banking Sector

Towards the Realisation of Multilingualism in South Africa

from Part II - Multilingualism and Intellectualisation of African Languages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Menzi Zamokwakhe Thango  and
Wisdom Ntando Moyo
Edited by
Russell H. Kaschula  and
H. Ekkehard Wolff
Russell H. Kaschula
Affiliation:
Rhodes University, South Africa
H. Ekkehard Wolff
Affiliation:
Universität Leipzig
Get access

Summary

This chapter analyses the South African language policies in relation to the use of African languages in South African banks. The study argues that the legislative efforts to achieve multilingualism within the banking sector fall very short of their goal. While the language policies are good on paper, the practicality of attaining their goal is far from being achieved. South Africa is a multilingual country with eleven official languages, including the sign language. However, the current language practices in the South African banks do not resonate with the multilingualism envisaged in the Constitution of 1996 and national language policies. This is evident in banks where only English is used as the sole language of communication and record, a predicament that elevates it to being the ‘language of business’. The irony, however, is that the majority of customers in banks are speakers of indigenous African languages.

Keywords

Language planning and policybanksindigenous African languagesmultilingualism
Type
Chapter
Information
The Transformative Power of Language
From Postcolonial to Knowledge Societies in Africa
 , pp. 193 - 206
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beukes, A. 2004. Language policy implementation in South Africa: How Kempton Park’s great expectations are dashed in Tshwane. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics 38: 1–26.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1989. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. 1968. Language and the Mind. New York: Harcourt.Google Scholar
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. 1996. www.acts.co.za/constitution_of_/constitution_of_the_republic_ofSouthAfrica.Google Scholar
Docrat, Z., & Kaschula, R. H. 2015. ‘Meaningful engagement’: Towards a language rights paradigm for effective language policy implementation. South African Journal of African Languages 35(1): 1–9.Google Scholar
Kus, E. 2003. Quantitative-Qualitative Research Techniques. Ankara: Ani Publications.Google Scholar
Makondo, D. 2012. The effects of the language of instruction on the performance of the Tsonga (Shangani) speaking grade seven pupils in Zimbabwe. PhD thesis, University of Limpopo, Limpopo.Google Scholar
Munro, C. R. 1987. Studies in Constitutional Law. London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Phaahla, P. 2006. The feasibility of Northern Sotho as a language of commerce and industry in the Limpopo and Gauteng Provinces. PhD thesis, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg.Google Scholar
Saffran, J. R., Senghas, A., & Trueswell, J. C. 2001. The acquisition of language by children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 98(23): 12874–12875.Google ScholarPubMed
Scott, S., & Palincsar, A. 2013. Sociocultural Theory. The Gale Group. http://dr-hatfield.com/theorists/resources/sociocultural_theory.pdfGoogle Scholar
South African Institute of Race Relations. 2003/4. Pretoria: South African Institute of Race Relations.Google Scholar
Use of official Languages Act 12 of 2012. www.gov.za/documents/use-official-languages-act.Google Scholar
Wright, L. 2002. Why English dominates the central economy: An economic perspective on ‘elite closure’ and South African language policy. Language Problems and Language Planning 26(2): 159–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×